http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_archive.jsp?ccid=51 Reader's Digest Asia - My Story Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:50:00 -0000 http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=6790 Father sighed quietly as he looked across his fields. The cotton-wool plants were starting to shrivel in the heat. He had done everything he could to salvage his crop, but it seemed there was nothing more he could do.Both my parents were from Myingyan, a Burmese district town 100 kilometres south of Mandalay. But Ko Kyaw Zin, my elder brother, and I were raised as "country kids" in a small village near Myingyan, where Mother was a high school teacher. Father also had a bachelor's degree in education, but he had trouble finding a job. So he bought a few acres of land near the village and tried to make a living as a farmer. Unfortunately, the country's struggling economy and the region's harsh weather never favoured him. Mother's salary was not enough to support a family, and they struggled to make ends meet.Father had to labour all day long under the scorching sun. Mother also worked on the farm on weekends to save the expense of another worker. Most of the money they earned at harvest time was used to repay loan sharks.Despite their hardships, I never heard them complaining. They were happy and believed that their sons would someday become great men.When Ko Kyaw Zin was nine and I was eight, we spent our summer holidays with our grandparents in Myingyan. During a visit to the Twin Cats Store, we spotted a red battery-operated car. It had real headlights and flickering tail-lights. To our eyes it was an angel in the world of all toys.Infatuated as we were, we did not enquire about the price. Why bother when it was obviously too expensive for us? We had never owned real toysand nbsp;- all of our playthings were make-dos built from cardboard boxes and broken housewares.Still, Ko Kyaw Zin and I often talked enthusiastically about that beautiful car. Later, our parents joined us in Myingyan, and when Father heard about the car, he announced that if we loved it that much he would buy it for us. When he had enough money we would go to the store and get it. We were elated. From that day on, we never stopped talking about our big plans for our car. We even prepared a bamboo box with a lock to keep it in. The summer holidays were almost over; we would have to go back to our village soon. Then the big day came. Father said we could buy the car.During the ten-minute walk to the Twin Cats Store, my brother and I giggled and hopped and bounced along beside Father. When we arrived, I walked straight up to the display case and pointed to the elegant little car.The store clerk glanced at us and hesitatingly took it out. No doubt she thought that a weary-looking man and his sons in worn-out clothes could only be annoying window shoppers."It's 370 Kyats," she told us in a monotone. That's about $57 now.I stood there, holding the car and waiting for Father to pay. He smiled at us and said in a soft voice, "Ah, Sons, that's a little bit more than what I've got in my pocket at the moment. We'll have to come back later."There was a silence. We might have been young but we understood. Then Father pointed to another toy car and asked the clerk, "How about that one?""That is more expensive." She wasn't even looking at us.Father had always been a brave man, but I wonder how much courage he needed to face his boys as he took their hands and retreated from the store.We walked back to our grandparents' house in silence. "Well, with 370, your mother can buy a new uniform," Father said as if talking to himself. We knew mother had only one school uniform, which she had to wash each day after school and wear again the next day. Ko Kyaw Zin and I never spoke about the toy car again.Years passed and my parents decided there was no future for us in the village. We moved to Myingyan and Father started giving private tuition classes to matriculation students. It turned out to be a lucrative job. We no longer struggled to get by.My brother and I attended the Mandalay University of Medicine, and we only saw our parents on holidays. One day when I was back home, I saw Father counting his money after evening classes. Holding a stack of notes, he said to Mother, "What do you think I'd like to do with all this money?""No idea," said Mother."I want to buy a car from the Twin Cats Store."Mother only smiled. At first I was astonished they had remembered such a small thing after a decade. Then I realised how stupid I was to have thought it was just an unimportant incident in their lives. I pretended not to have a clue what they were talking about. Why would I let them know that their little boy, too, could not forget his favourite toy, the one he couldn't have? http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=6679 When I was growing up, my parents took teaching jobs in a remote town in Quezon Province http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=6678 During my first seven semesters as a medical student at Gadjah Mada University http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=6681 Grantham is a market town in the English county of Lincolnshire . Its most famous son is Sir Isaac Newton, one of the foremost scientists in world history. A statue of the great man stands proud and erect in the town centre, with the name ''Newton http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=6397 "You don't understand! You are going to make me die an old maid! You don't even know what romance is!" http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=6266 It was a story I heard often during my two weeks in Northwest Afghanistan with a team of volunteers from Singapore and Malaysia. It was June 2002, seven months after the Taliban had been driven from power. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=6269 Having raised five children, I knew that it would be better to let his emotions cool down and pursue the matter later, rather than force the truth out of him then and there. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5754 Almost 30 years ago, Khin Khin Lay and I were medical students in the town of Mingaladon, 17 kilometres north of the capital Yangon, then called Rangoon. We were together all the time - attending lectures and tutorial classes, doing laboratory experiments and studying bedside cases. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5295 While working with the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia as its puppy-breeding manager in the early '80s, I received a request from Hawaii. A vision-impaired woman there, whose husband was allergic to dog hair, had written to our centre in the hope that we might have an allergy-free guide-dog. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5264 I knew Jefri* for only a few years, but I came to like him very much. I originally met him through my husband Danial*. They went to school together, and later, when Danial went overseas to pursue his engineering degree, Jefri stayed in Malaysia and attended a local university. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5108 The whispers and giggles woke me up. I felt the cold, hard surface of the table on which I was sleeping, and sat up quickly. Across the room, curious children peeked over the open window’s edge. Feeling a little embarrassed to be caught sleeping on the table, I waved them off and got myself together – refugee camp or not, I still needed the first few minutes of the day to myself. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=4682 In a village in Selangor, Malaysia, where I grew up, coconut trees shaded the wooden houses, where fathers bowed to the earth working the paddy, mothers stayed at home and their children ran around barefoot. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=4455 When the phone call came through, it took but a moment to dash the hopes I’d held for days. I thought I’d had an excellent chance of landing my dream job, but it wasn’t to be. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=4415 I’m sure many great, powerful and rich people think about how they can make a difference in the world. There are so many big problems, and they require big solutions, right? http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=4277 I remember sitting at the kitchen table in our Kuala Lumpur home when I was eight, watching my mother fix dinner. Before doing anything else, she would always take off her silver wedding band and place it on the counter. I remember playing with it, running my fingers over the grooves of the simple design. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=4047 Every time somebody asked me about my future ambitions when I was growing up in Pakistan, I always replied, “I want to become a doctor.” The white coat and stethoscope attracted me so much – I would play with my toy doctor’s kit for hours and hours. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=3569 My love for jiaozi goes back to my childhood in Yantai, Shandong Province. Each year as the Lunar New Year drew nigh, Mum would exhort me and my six brothers and sisters, ''You must be good and obedient, or else you will not be allowed to taste my special New Year jiaozi.'' At that time, we were poor and needy; with seven children to be fed, we knew well what that gourmet deprivation meant. We behaved ourselves and waited with great expectation for the magic day to come. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=3304 The dining set was made of dark hardwood with cushions covered in red leather. It was the perfect hiding place for hide and seek. Lying flat across the seat of two chairs tucked underneath the table, I was invisible. If anyone peeked under the table, they would see nothing but table and chair legs. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=2980 One day in January 1945, Mother asked me to prepare our horse and caretela carriage so she could go see a doctor. While I was in the fields looking for the horse, I came upon several men chasing a Japanese soldier. Forgetting my task, I immediately joined the chase. http://www.readersdigest.com.ph/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=2852 with the arrival of our beautiful twin girls, we were on top of the world. After spending the day at the hospital, my mother and I went home at about 9 pm, while my sister-in-law Elmira, who had travelled from Moscow to be with us, stayed on with Nafisa and the babies.